Ann Coulter vs Hasan Piker on Immigration 1

by • Culture Wars/Current Controversies, Immigration, Left and Right

A predictable shit show. I love political fractiousness. Virtually none of the contending factions associated with the present political/culture war paradigm have any relevance to the pan-anarchist position. All of them are groups that seek control of the state or seek to solicit favors from the state. The best bet is for the Left and Right to continue to attack the Center, while simultaneously attacking each other, and for the Left and Right to similarly fracture internally. The objective is to weaken the state’s ability to  maneuver while preventing any political faction from gaining a monopoly on power.

 

Kyle Kulinski Vs Hasan Piker Debate On Free Speech Reply

by • Culture Wars/Current Controversies • Tags: ,

A pro-free speech progressive vs an antifa on free speech. I am actually somewhere between these two guys. I am all for violence against the state (when tactically appropriate) but opposed to either censorship/deplatforming of mere expression of opinions or violence against other political groups that are against the system and out of power.  There’s far too much moralizing on the part of both of these guys for my tastes, and this Hasan Piker guy engages in a great deal of special pleading. This discussion also represents another interesting cleavage on the left.

Kick the Puppy Episode 16 Reply

by • Kick the Puppy, Uncategorized

PC2_go-12-512

12.30.18

Syria/Afghan troop withdrawal, Congress strengthens police state in order to wage war on sex workers, moral panics, study finds police officers arrested 1100 times per year, the possibility of future left/right violence, Casey Anthony gets her own reality show, Casey Anthony 4 President, cat owners more likely to be into BDSM than other people, House passes bill banning eating dogs and cats, the sacred dog, Zimbabwe’s health minister says Chinese condoms too small, Amazon’s Alexa suggests murder in AI experiment, the possibility of artificial intelligence reaching a level of self awareness, the world through the eyes of Americans, the impact homelessness and the opioid crisis are having on SF streets, the Dollar Store backlash has begun, London Metropolitan Police deploy facial recognition tech with a 100% failure rate, innocent New York man billed $4,600 for police rectal probe, Fukushima’s surfers riding on radioactive waves, unmanned grocery delivery is underway in Arizona, autonomous advertisement is coming, Happy New Year from AttacktheSystem.com.

hk11

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12 People Who Don’t Suck! 2

by • Uncategorized • Tags:

By Nicky Reid aka Comrade Hermit

Exile in Happy Valley

Every year since I started this blog I’ve written a Shitlist of all the cunts who drive me to near homicidal ideation. And every year since I started this blog I’ve countered that poison pen cocktail with a more altruistic list to bring in the new year, a list of people that miraculously don’t suck (I know, right?). It’s often a hard list to write because so few people deserve to be on it. I often have to struggle not to put the same damn people on it every year. This year I’ve decided to leave out my holy trinity of repeat offenders, the patron saint of the Fifth Estate, Julian Assange, and my online mentors, Angela Keaton and Thomas Knapp (consider this sentence an honorable mention), and try to put nothing but first timers on this list. I came up with twelve, and like my shitlist, not everybody is going to agree with my choices. But with me, someone is always going to have to go fuck themselves. Like it or loath it, these are the holy handful of dearest motherfuckers who have kept the proverbial pistol out of my mouth in 2018, and I feel duty bound to salute them.

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Far Left Media Is Dying Because Gen-Z Is Too Conservative 6

by • Culture Wars/Current Controversies, Left and Right, Political Correctness/Totalitarian Humanism • Tags:

Will the rise of Generation Z mark the death of SJWism? Is the PC/SJW/Antifa phenomenon simply the final stage in the backlash against the “old world” that existed before the cultural revolution of the 1960s and 1970s, and which has now become status quo?

It is necessary for anarchists and libertarians to oppose authoritarianism wherever it emerges. In the 1950s, it was racism and McCarthyism. In the 1960s and 1970s, it was the draft and the Vietnam War, Nixonism, and COINTELPRO. In the 1980s and 1990s, it was Reaganism, the War on Drugs, the “Satanic panic,” the religious right, Clintonism, and the “war on crime.” In the 2000s, it was the neconservatives and the War on Terrorism. In the past decade or so, left-wing authoritarianism of the SJW variety has become pervasive. In the future, it could become something else. For instance, “anti-sex trafficking” hysteria seems to be on the rise, or perhaps SJWism could create a right-wing backlash of the kind that has already been partially observed by the emergence of Trumpism, the Alt-Right/Lite, etc. Eternal vigilance.

 

Far Left Media Is Dying Because Gen-Z Is Too Conservative. Study after study shows the trend, generation z is becoming conservative and mostly resembles libertarians or moderate Republicans. This is a dramatic shift from Millennials who are overwhelmingly progressive. What happens then is that these companies cannot grow or attract new readers because young people do not want far left media. The outcome is obvious, these companies are laying people off and collapsing. While social justice is something most people agree with, the regressive left is too authoritarian and off putting.

Critiquing Left-wing Authoritarianism is Essential to Anarchism Reply

by • Culture Wars/Current Controversies, Left and Right

The foundation of anarchism should be a commitment to anti-authoritarian values generally, not just opposition to “right-wing authoritarianism.” Far too many anarchists are simply “conventional progressives, minus the state” and even the anti-statism of many “anarcho-social democrats” is questionable. Left-wing authoritarianism has been a plague on radical movements for more than two centuries. Therefore, it is necessary to consider the critiques of left-wing authoritarianism that have been developed over time.

One of the first and most important works of this kind was Edmund Burke’s Reflections on the Revolution in France. The writings of Max Stirner and Friedrich Nietzsche provided an analysis of left-wing politics as a expression of secularized religiosity. Early anarchist criticisms of Marxism are also an important part of this history, particularly the critique of Marxism offered by Bakunin. In the 20th century, a range of writers from the left and right created critiques of Communist authoritarianism. The writings of Arthur Koestler are among the most interesting of these.

Many anarchists, even those of a hard left variety, are aware of the history of Communist totalitarianism (although such tendencies are also making something of a comeback in leftist circles as well, and are presently infesting the anarchist milieu in various ways). However, many anarchists are oblivious to the fact that the tradition of leftist authoritarianism is far more than merely Bolshevism or Stalinism. Hence, most anarchists have no intellectual armor against the influence of critical theory and “cultural Marxism.”

The Marxism That Must Not Be Named 1

by • Culture Wars/Current Controversies, Left and Right, Political Correctness/Totalitarian Humanism • Tags:

History repeating itself as a tragedy and a farce. The principal weakness of most contemporary anarchists is their failure to recognize that any set of values can be turned toward authoritarian ends, not just conservative ones, and any kind of group can act in an authoritarian manner, not just traditionally hegemonic ones. Here’s the money quote from this article:

“And if all the volumes of scholarship are not enough, the parallels between Marxism-Leninism and cultural Marxism are obvious:

  • Both eliminate freedom of thought and expression and attempt to impose totalitarianism on their suffering subjects, as we see on too many American university campuses.  Stalin’s and Mao’s tyranny was more oppressive than Hitler’s or Mussolini’s and killed far more people, probably at least ten times as many.
  • Both see history as a product of only one factor, in Marxism-Leninism ownership of the means of production and in cultural Marxism which groups, defined by race and gender, have power over which other groups.
  • Both define some groups of people as good and others as evil regardless of what individuals do.  Marxism-Leninism defines workers and peasants as good and capitalists and members of the middle class (the hated bourgeoisie) as evil, while cultural Marxism says whites, males, heterosexuals, and non-feminist women are evil while blacks, third world immigrants, gays, and feminists are good.

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The War on Terrorism is a Complete Loss for the Empire Reply

by • Anti-Imperialism/Foreign Policy, Fourth Generation Warfare, Military • Tags: ,

After 17 years and a series of failed wars, the number of Sunni fundamentalist terrorists is larger than it was in 2001.

By William S. Lind

Traditional Right

An article in the November 21 New York Times revealed two aspects of our ongoing strategic failure in Fourth Generation war.  First, it quoted a new study by CSIS that found the number of Sunni 4GW fighters has grown, not shrunk, since we began the “war on terror” on 9/11:

Nearly four times as many Sunni Islamic militants are operating around the world today as on Sept. 11, 2001, despite nearly two decades of American-led campaigns to combat Al Qaeda and the Islamic state, a new independent study concludes.

That amounts to as many as 230,000 Salafi jihadist fighters in nearly 70 countries, according to the study by the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington think tank. . .

. . .the Islamic State remains the predominant threat, with as many as about 40,000 members globally this year, up from 30,200 in 2014, when the group’s fighters seized the northern third of Iraq.

Second, the Times turned to another study to look at what our current strategy has cost:

Last week, Brown University’s Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs released its annual report, the Cost of War study, in which it calculated that the United States will have spent $5.9 trillion on activities related to the global counter terrorism campaign by October 2019.

So, the war of attrition waged largely from the air that is our chosen 4GW strategy has, in seventeen years, cost us almost $6 trillion (not billion) while multiplying our Islamic enemies fourfold.  Can we see this as anything other than strategic failure on a grand scale?

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Keith Preston: UAE embassy reopening, US pullout prove failure of anti-Syria plots Reply

by • Anti-Imperialism/Foreign Policy • Tags: ,

Press TV. Listen here.

The UAE’s reopening of its embassy in Syria and the US announcement that it will withdraw its forces from the country reflect the failure of plots targeting the government of Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad, says an American analyst.

“What has happened is that over the past seven years…, the United Arab Emirates as well as other [Persian] Gulf states have attempted to weaken and destroy the government of President [Bashar] al-Assad in Syria,” Keith Preston told Press TV from Virginia on Thursday.

The Syrian Information Ministry announced on Thursday that the United Arab Emirates had officially reopened its embassy for the first time since 2011.

The UAE closed down its embassy after Syria was hit by a foreign-backed militancy in 2011. The UAE have Saudi Arabia have for long been accused of funding militants fighting to topple the Syrian administration.

“Clearly, that objective has failed,” Preston said, adding their hopes that Washington could realize the plot have also been dashed.

“They were hoping that the Americans would eliminate the government of Syria, but that has failed,” he said.

US President Donald Trump has announced that has ordered a full and rapid withdrawal of troops from Syria.

“So, they’re trying a different strategy at this point…they’re backtracking,” Preston said. adding, “And the reason for this is essentially an admission of defeat by the UAE. They realized that the Assad government is going to remain in power and that they’re going to have to deal with this particular government.”

Preston also said the Syrian government’s victory is likely to push it closer to the nations and groups that have helped it win the war, including Iran and Lebanon’s Hezbollah.

“And I think that the UAE is also concerned that the American withdrawal is going to strengthen the position of Syria and strengthen the position of Syria’s allies in the region, and now, they’re thinking that they’re going to have to try extend the olive branch or the carrot rather than the stick,” the pundit noted.

Preston finally said he suspected that other Persian Gulf monarchies will be following in Abu Dhabi’s footsteps in reestablishing diplomatic ties with Damascus.

The Case for Bottom Up Anti-Imperialism 5

by • Anti-Imperialism/Foreign Policy

By Keith Preston

Image result for bottom up anti-imperialism

Recently, a reader of Attack the System offered the following questions and comments:

“Keith Preston,

Why do you and other radical, ostensibly libertarian anti-war types, leap to the defense of the authoritarian BRICS countries, anti-propertarian movements in Latin America, Duginist shills, and other slave-minded untermensch? Reading the work of Marxist-Leninists as primers on strategy is one thing. Their revolutions succeeded, and it is essential to learn from them. But for godsakes let the neocons eradicate our Marxist blood enemies, while we gather our strength.

You frequently repeat your desire to create a non-aligned movement, one which I believe we share, but if your model is the so-called “non-aligned movement” that amounted to little more than Soviet controlled opposition, I find it reasonable to say you are more interested in an anti-American movement than a powerful, effective non-aligned one. If that’s what you want, national anarchists risk falling into a similar trap that snuffed out the Strasserites and classical anarchists, though perhaps it won’t be as lethal.

I am not interested in defending the Atlanticist foreign policy establishment. They are very frequently wrong, and disastrously so. But perhaps a handful is sincere in their desire for an open society, and I desire to give credit where it’s due. I’ll give them credit for supporting “nazis” in Ukraine, and Kurdish separatists in Iraq. However disastrous the war in Afghanistan has been, it has kept Winnie the Pooh at bay, and restraining the Chinese is essential. If there is an immediate, voluntarist solution to that problem, let me know.

I also count the suppression of Latin American Marxism, among the establishment’s few good deeds. As someone interested in decentralization and subsidiarity, I hope to see Bolsonaro’s Brasil take over the leading role in fighting communism south of the Panama Canal, from the USA. However I’m realistic, and know the chances of the USA handing off a torch to anyone are almost zero.

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Canada, US urge china to release its detained nationals Reply

by • Uncategorized

Canada has called for the immediate release of two of its nationals detained in China. Canadian Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland called the detentions arbitrary and a source of deep concern. The two were detained after Canada arrested chief financial officer of Chinese tech giant Huawei in Vancouver. Freeland warned that the detention of the Huawei executive is not political. She added that Ottawa respects its extradition treaty with the US. The Huawei official was arrested after the U-S requested her extradition allegedly for violating anti-Iran sanctions. The US state department echoed Canada’s call on Friday, saying Beijing should immediately release the Canadian nationals.